NGO accuses Israel of systematic abuse of Palestinian kids

A West Bank-based children’s rights group on Wednesday accused Israeli security forces of widespread abuse of Palestinian minors in the West Bank.

The IDF swiftly denied the allegations, outlined in a report by a group called Military Court Watch (MCW).

The study estimates that since Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, “up to 95,000 children” have been detained by Israeli forces in the territory.

The report, submitted to the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, looks at 200 cases in which minors were detained since 2013.

In its conclusion, MCW found that in spite of recent developments in the military detention system, “ill-treatment is still widespread, systematic and institutionalized.”

Citing the testimonies, it said 187 of them had their hands bound during the first 24 hours of arrest, 165 said they were blindfolded and 124 complained of physical abuse.

“Aggressive behaviour, threats and violence are also sometimes utilized during the interrogation, including threats to beat, rape, hold in solitary confinement, electrocute or shoot the minor,” it said.

Only eight of the 200 said they were given access to a lawyer prior to interrogation and just seven had a parent present during questioning.

A source in the IDF Prosecutor’s Office told AFP there was no legal requirement for either a lawyer or a parent to attend questioning; not for Palestinians and not for Israeli suspects.

But a defendant facing trial was provided with legal counsel and the parents had the right to attend court hearings, the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Regarding allegations of threats and physical abuse, he said defendants or their parents were free to make complaints in open court but “almost never” did.

He said the entire interrogation process, conducted in Arabic, was videotaped and the recordings were made available to the defense.

In the report, a copy of which was seen by AFP, MCW said a “significant number of minors” had been arrested during the night in “terrifying military raids on their homes”.

Most children were arrested in areas close to Jewish settlements or to roads used by settlers, which are often a target for children throwing stones.

Statistics released this week by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel paint a devastating picture of neglect, urban blight and underdevelopment in East Jerusalem, the historic heart of Palestinian life, all a result of nearly five decades of Israeli policies, with over 75 percent of Palestinians living below the poverty line compared to the national Israeli average of 21.8 percent.

Decades of neglect leave East Jerusalem mired in poverty, violence

Decades of chronic under-funding, discriminatory planning rights, and unequal access to services have left the Palestinian community in Jerusalem mired in poverty, according to statistics published by a civil rights group, with youths subject to increased police brutality and arrests since last summer’s demonstrations in the city.

Statistics released this week by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel paint a devastating picture of neglect, urban blight and underdevelopment in East Jerusalem, the historic heart of Palestinian life, all a result of nearly five decades of Israeli policies, with over 75 percent of Palestinians living below the poverty line compared to the national Israeli average of 21.8 percent.

The group released the statistics —taken from the Jerusalem Municipality, Israeli Police, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and other official agencies — to coincide with Jerusalem Day, a largely right-wing Israeli national holiday to celebrate the “liberation” and “reunification” of the city following what is internationally recognized as the illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

For Palestinians, the day is a painful reminder of their historic loss, displacement, and on going marginalization.

Despite having lived under Israeli rule for 48 years, Palestinians are classified as permanent residents, not citizens, and lack political representation at a national level. The community largely chooses to boycott local municipal elections — in 2013 around 1 percent of Palestinians voted — and are essentially political orphans, with no Israeli or Palestinian political body representing their interests.

The result is recurring neglect of the 300,200 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who form 36.8 percent of the city’s total population.

“These (Palestinian neighborhoods) are places where roads haven’t been repaired for years, where schools haven’t been built, where there is crime and garbage. In that sense you do wonder what the municipality thinks is the future (for East Jerusalem),”Ronit Sela,Director of ACRI’s Human Rights in East Jerusalem Project, told Ma’an.

In terms of public services, 36 percent of Palestinian households are not connected to the water network,43 percent of the classrooms in the municipal system are defined as inadequate, and there is a shortage of 30 kilometers of sewage pipes in Palestinian neighborhoods.

There are only eight post offices in East Jerusalem, compared to 40 in West Jerusalem. Furthermore, Palestinians can access only 9 infant healthcare centers in the city compared to 26 for Israelis, and poverty rates for children are 53 percent higher for Palestinian children, with 8,501 defined as “at risk.”

The dropout rate for Palestinian students in East Jerusalem in 12th grade — where students are 18 years old — is 33 percent, nearly 24 times higher than the dropout rate in the Hebrew education system, which stands at 1.4 percent, and despite forming 36.8 percent of the population — and paying residential and commercial taxes — only 10-13 percent of the overall municipal budget is invested in East Jerusalem,according to rights group Ir Amim.

“Palestinians in Jerusalem suffer first and foremost from the fact there is an on going conflict and Israeli authorities control every aspect of their lives,” Sela says.

Social workers in East Jerusalem say that the myriad of social and political problems can often affect individual Palestinian families directly, with many suffering from having one son in prison and another dropping out of school without qualifications, amid a backdrop of economic marginalization.

“East Jerusalem is not a tiny piece of land or territory, but Israeli policies have been to limit the space where Palestinians can reside, to limit the space where Palestinians can have commercial life or industry and, with the separation barrier, fragment the areas where Palestinians are living and where the center of the community is,” Sela says.

Police brutality, arbitrary law enforcement

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Alongside chronic poverty and economic marginalization, one of the major changes since ACRI’s 2014 report on East Jerusalem are the increasingly draconian police and municipal measures introduced against Palestinians following months of clashes following the murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir last July by Israeli extremists.

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In the second half of 2014, ACRI reported that over 1,184 Palestinians were detained in East Jerusalem, including 406 children, with indictments submitted against 338 of those arrested.

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“Police violence is harsher and the state prosecution is asking for minors to be put under arrest for longer periods of time even before indictments. They keep them in prison custody for longer,” Sela says.

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Around 314 of the 338 Palestinians served with indictments — including 122 children — have been imprisoned since their detention as the charges for “disruption of public order” and riot-related offenses are processed, which adds up to months in jail before a sentence has even been passed.

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Israeli police forces have also provided the Jerusalem municipality with the names of hundreds of suspects wanted for alleged involvement in the demonstrations in order to increase enforcement measures against them, ACRI says, essentially a way of blacklisting Palestinian residents in civilian life.

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Some of the enforcement measures are childishly arbitrary, with ACRI reporting one example of municipal inspectors issuing a fine for the negligible offense of littering the streets with sunflower seeds.

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Other measures, however, are much more serious, with municipal officers issuing demolition orders and fines to Palestinian businesses and homes.

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The Hagihon water company, theTax Authority and the National Insurance Institute are also all involved in enforcing arbitrary measures against Palestinian suspects, which were described by ACRI as “collective punishment” and the “abuse of the municipality’s enforcement powers.”

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In addition to the mass arrests — the largest number in East Jerusalem since the Second Intifada — police tactics have become notably more aggressive since last summer’s demonstrations, with the increased use of black sponge-tipped bullets since the summer, a harder, heavier, and more dangerous variant of the blue sponge-tipped bullet, which had been used almost exclusively before last year’s unrest.

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Use of the black variety of the bullets has been responsible for the loss of vision in at least one eye of five Palestinian children during the end of 2014, the youngest of whom was six-years-old.

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One youth, 16-year-old Muhammad Abd Al-Majid Sunuqrut, was killed in September after being struck with the riot control measure in East Jerusalem, which is used almost exclusively against Palestinians.

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ACRI also reported that at least three journalists clearly identified as media workers were hit in the head, face and shoulder by sponge bullets during demonstrations, in contravention against orders prohibiting aiming at the upper body, or children.

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The police tactic has also caused arm fractures, jaw fractures and internal injuries such as spleen tears, with one 30-year-old Palestinian born blind since childhood in one eye left completely blind after being shot with a sponge-tipped bullet.

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Directives for use of the more dangerous black bullet were only drafted in January 2015 after a request from ACRI, a full six months after their regular use against Palestinians.

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Israeli police also regularly used “Skunk” water in Palestinian neighborhoods, spraying the putrid-smelling liquid into houses, restaurants, and cars, with many residents having to temporarily evacuate their homes until the smell subsides.

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In October and November, Israeli forces blocked the main entrances to three major Palestinian neighborhoods — almost unthinkable in the West Jerusalem neighborhoods of Rehavia or the German Colony — restricting the movement of 50,000 Palestinians.

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In April, Israeli police then used cement blocks to seal the neighborhood of al-Tur following clashes, preventing the movement of residents and hindering crucial services such as ambulances and school buses.

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Struggling to stay in the city

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Alongside chronic poverty and punitive police and municipality tactics looms the constant threat of displacement, with Palestinians struggling to remain in the city amid legislation which prohibits planning and building, and punishes violations with eviction and demolitions.

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In 2014, 98 structures were demolished and 208 Palestinians were forcibly displaced, ACRI says.Since 2004, over 2,115 Palestinians have been left homeless by demolitions in East Jerusalem.

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Around 20,000 houses — accounting for 39 percent of East Jerusalem homes — lack a building permit and therefore could be issued a demolition order by the municipality at any point, leaving Palestinian families vulnerable and unable to plan for the future.

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The residency status of 107 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem was also revoked in 2014, adding to the 14,309 since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the city, meaning Palestinians whose families date back centuries in the city are no longer allowed to return.

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Despite five decades of Israeli polices designed to slowly displace Palestinians in Jerusalem, the community forms nearly 40 percent of the city’s population,leaving it unclear as to what the municipality, and indeed the government, has planned, considering that it will unlikely ever concede political control of the Old City.

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In 2014, Israel’s government approved for the first time in history a five year plan for East Jerusalem with a budget of 300 million shekels ($78 million).

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However, a third of the budget was to be allocated to “security,” with the remaining 200 million not nearly enough to reverse decades of deliberate neglect.

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“In order for real and meaningful changes to transpire, a fundamental change of attitude must take place among Israeli authorities,” ACRI said in the report.

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“They need to see the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem as human beings whose dignity must be maintained, whose lives must be protected and whose human rights must be promoted, even as the conflict continues to bleed on the streets of Jerusalem.”

Police recently shot and killed Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a mentally disturbed man, and it was all caught on video. While he had a rock in his hand rather than a gun, could the situation have been handled differently?

Video Reveals Police Gunning Down Man for Throwing Rocks

A witness recorded three police officers chasing and gunning down a mentally disturbed man for throwing rocks at them on Tuesday. Although the Pasco Police Department claims the man struck two of the officers with rocks and withstood the effects of a Taser, an eyewitness and the video do not corroborate their account of the incident.

Around 5pm on Tuesday, Pasco police officers Adrian Alaniz, Ryan Flanagan, and Adam Wright responded to a 911 call concerning a man allegedly throwing rocks at cars and trucks. The officers approached Antonio Zambrano-Montes in the Fiesta Foods parking lot and ordered him to put down the rocks and surrender. According to a police statement, Zambrano-Montes threw rocks of various sizes at them pelting two of the officers with rocks. After a Taser failed to have any effect on him, the officers fired their service weapons to take down Zambrano-Montes.

But Pasco resident Benjamin Patrick, who witnessed the incident, asserts that he saw Zambrano-Montes struggling with an officer when two other officers drove up to help. Zambrano-Montes began yelling at the police when he picked up two rocks or dirt clods. Patrick recalled Zambrano-Montes throwing one at the cops but missing. Then an officer fired his Taser, but Patrick does not believe both darts connected with Zambrano-Montes.

As Zambrano-Montes pulled the ineffective dart from his arm, the officers fired five shots at him. According to Patrick, the officers hit Zambrano-Montes in the first volley of bullets. As Zambrano-Montes fled across the busy intersection, the officers chased after him. When he turned around to confront the officers, they fired at least eight more times shooting Zambrano-Montes to death.

“I could not believe they were shooting guns. There were cars and people everywhere,” Patrick recalled. “Yes, he was resisting. Yes, he was wrong. But it looked like there might be something wrong with him. And he wasn’t hurting anyone. He had a rock, not a gun. It seems it could have been handled differently.”

Another witness recorded the shooting on their cell phone. The video shows the officers firing five shots at Zambrano-Montes before chasing him across the street. As Zambrano-Montes turned around confronting the cops with his hand slightly raised, they gunned him down on the sidewalk.

“This is a very disturbing incident, and our hearts go out to the family of Antonio Zambrano-Montes. Fleeing from police and not following an officer’s command should not be sufficient for a person to get shot,” said Kathleen Taylor, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state. “Lethal force should be used only as an absolute last resort. Police need to understand how to de-escalate confrontations and use force only as necessary.”

Flanagan is a nine-year veteran of the department and traffic safety officer. Wright is an eight-year veteran and firearms instructor. Alaniz has been on the force for two years.

In 2009, Flanagan and another officer were accused of racial profiling and excessive force for restraining Pasco resident Maria Davila-Marquez and pressing her face against the heated hood of their patrol car. After suffering second-degree burns, Davila-Marquez filed a lawsuit against the city and won a $100,000 settlement. According to the lawsuit, Flanagan was never disciplined for his actions.

On January 16, 2014, officers responded to reports of a man striking cars with a broom. Confronted by law enforcement, Zambrano-Montes picked up a rocking chair and attempted to throw it at Officer Adam Brewster. After throwing a mailbox and a post at Brewster, Zambrano-Montes grabbed the officer’s belt attempting to retrieve the service pistol from his holster.

Officer Jeffrey Cobb shot Zambrano-Montes with a Taser and helped Brewster handcuff him. After being transported to the Lourdes Medical Center, Zambrano-Montes admitted that he had been on methamphetamines. He pleaded guilty last June.

After failing to appear in court two weeks ago, a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Zambrano-Montes. He was released from police custody a day before he was killed.

There were several marches – the one we went on had about 2,000 people. Then we went to Grand Central Station where about 200 of us held up the names of unarmed Black citizens, mostly young men, who were killed by the police. People read about them, who they were, how they died. After each story people said their name, all together, and raised their fist in the air. People passing through stopped to listen. Some family members of those killed were there. After 3 hours someone read King’s last speech and we repeated it, one line at a time (Occupy style) and then everyone sang We Shall Overcome and Keep Your Eyes on the Prize, Hold On. Actually, we did the same thing for 24 hours last week. It is a very powerful experience.

On New Year’s Day 50+ people gathered in New York City’s Grand Central Station for a “sing” to protest the police killings of Black citizens in New York City and nationally. The song began with “ I can hear my brother crying ‘I can’t breathe’” it was sung eleven times, the number of times Staten Islander Eric Gardner cried out as he was killed by a police choke hold. The only person arrested that day had made a video of the event which had gone viral. The protesters noted that District Attorneys have not indicted any police officer engaged in the racial shooting of Blacks.

At the Federal Building on Wall Street, people assembled to protest the wanton racist shooting of Black citizens and send a loud clear message that “ Black Lives Matter”. This location is very significant. It was here that George Washington took the oath, as the first President (1789) to the new Constitution of the United States. Just a short distance from here there were then active slave auction blocks. New York City did not fully abolish slavery until 1827. Also nearby is the slave cemetery. One can imagine the spirits of these buried slaves raising from their internment listening to the now voices resounding in the cold night air that “Black Lives Matter”. Hundreds of years after them the struggle has not been abandoned.

On New Year’s Day 50+ people gathered in New York City’s Grand Central Station for a “sing” to protest the police killings of Black citizens in New York City and nationally. The song began with “ I can hear my brother crying ‘I can’t breathe’” it was sung eleven times, the number of times Staten Islander Eric Gardner cried out as he was killed by a police choke hold. The only person arrested that day had made a video of the event which had gone viral. The protesters noted that District Attorneys have not indicted any police officer engaged in the racial shooting of Blacks.

Thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets yesterday demanding an end to racist police violence and seeking justice for those who died at the hands of officers who are never held accountable for their illegal actions.

The crowds of tens of thousands, diverse and overwhelmingly young, were a wonderful representation of New York and they were exuberant and militant in their demands: “No justice, no peace!” rang throughout Washington Square Park which is where they assembled at 2:00 pm on a blustery winter Saturday. The weather proved no deterrent as marchers left the park and headed up Fifth Avenue. “I can’t breathe!” “Hands up, don’t shoot!” were shouted out, echoing the dying words of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, whose deaths ignited the unending protests that have created, what seems to be, a new civil rights movement in our country – or at least a growing awareness by millions that something is terribly wrong with the so-called justice system in these United States and a determination to demand change to right that wrong.

Above commentary by Matt Weinstein. Click HERE for his photos of the demo.

These were the sounds heard in the Times Sq. area last night as over 100 people gathered to protest the killings of unarmed Black people that have been going on for much too long in this country. A multi-racial, multi-ethnic group of people stood in the cold for 2 hours holding signs, reading the names of victims, and telling their stories to all who would listen. To further decry the long history of American racism, the names of people lynched, like Emmett Till, were included in the signs and recitation.

Every night since the New York Grand Jury refused to indict the officer who choked unarmed Staten Island citizen Eric Garner to death there have been marches, die-ins, and occupations in parts of the city by thousands of angry and pained people. The groups have included everyone from youthful students to seniors, some veterans of the civil rights movement of the 60’s. But this is not like the civil rights movement – the demonstrators are not asking for laws to be changed. They are demanding that the government, the police departments, and their fellow citizens conduct themselves in a way to show that BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Under the NYC night sky at 6:30 pm, 10,000 (police report) people gathered at Foley Square to protest the failure of the Grand Jury to indict the killer policeman of Eric Gardner, a Black resident from Staten Island . The demonstration was called by the NYC Civil Liberties Union and The Center For Constitutional Rights. The meeting was peaceful, but participants were angry. The meeting represented the wide range of ethnic and racial population in NYC, from the young to oldsters. “BLACK LIFE MATTERS” and “I CAN’T BREATHE” were the refrains which filled Foley Square as well as “NO PEACE WITH OUT JUSTICE” and “HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT” (referring to Ferguson Mo). Within hours people spontaneously began to leave the Square to circulate through the city. Local street protests continued to the wee hours of the morning. The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges were closed down. The Holland Tunnel was closed for forty minutes. In some streets traffic was blocked and “die-ins” on the streets helped block the traffic. There were masses of police with their patrol cars and scooters and their buses to hold arrested demonstrators (200 were arrested).

The tactics used by the demonstrators were very familiar to those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s.

It is unfortunate that people are still marching for what should have been achieved more than a half a century ago.

My son wants me to reassure him, and tell him that of course DarrenWilson will go to jail. At 10 years old, he can feel deep in his bones how wrong it was for the police to kill Michael Brown. “There will be a trial, at least — right, Mom?” My son is asking me a simple question, and I know the answer.

Telling My Son About Ferguson

COLUMBUS, Ohio — MY son wants an answer. He is 10 years old, and he wants me to tell him that he doesn’t need to worry. He is a black boy, rather sheltered, and knows little of the world beyond our safe, quiet neighborhood. His eyes are wide and holding my gaze, silently begging me to say: No, sweetheart, you have no need to worry. Most officers are nothing like Officer Wilson. They would not shoot you — or anyone — while you’re unarmed, running away or even toward them.

I am stammering.

For the past few years, I have traveled from coast to coast speaking to just about anyone who will listen about the horrors of our criminal injustice system. I have written and lectured extensively about the wars that have been declared on poor communities of color — the “war on crime” and the “war on drugs” — the militarization of our police forces, the school-to-prison pipeline, the millions stripped of basic civil and human rights, a penal system unprecedented in world history. Yet here I am, on Monday evening, before the announcement about the grand jury’s decision has been made, speechless.

Michelle AlexanderCreditBen Garvin for The New York Times

My son wants me to reassure him, and tell him that of course Darren Wilson will go to jail. At 10 years old, he can feel deep in his bones how wrong it was for the police to kill Michael Brown. “There will be a trial, at least — right, Mom?” My son is asking me a simple question, and I know the answer.

As a civil rights lawyer, I know all too well that Officer Wilson will not be going to trial or to jail. The system is legally rigged so that poor people guilty of relatively minor crimes are regularly sentenced to decades behind bars while police officers who kill unarmed black men almost never get charged, much less serve time in prison.

I open my mouth to speak, look into my son’s eyes, and hear myself begin to lie: “Don’t worry, honey, you have nothing to worry about. Nothing like this could ever happen to you.” His face brightens as he tells me that he likes the police, and that he always waves at the cops in our neighborhood and they always wave back. His innocence is radiating from him now; he’s all lit up with relief and gladness that he lives in a world where he can take for granted that the police can be trusted to serve and protect him with a wave and a smile.

My face is flushing red. I am embarrassed that I have lied. And I am angry. I am angry that I have to tell my son that he has reason to worry. I am angry that I have to tell him that I already know Darren Wilson won’t be indicted, because police officers are almost never indicted when they kill unarmed black men. I must tell him now, before he hears it on the school bus or sees it in the news, that many people in Michael Brown’s town will be very angry too — so filled with pain, sadness and rage — that they may react by doing things they shouldn’t, like setting fires or breaking windows or starting fights.

I know I must explain this violence, but not condone it. I must help him see that adults often have trouble managing their pain just like he does. Doesn’t he sometimes lash out and yell at friends or family when he’s hurt or angry? When people have been hurt over and over, and rather than compassion or understanding you’re given lectures about how it’s really all your fault, and that no one needs to make amends, you can lose your mind. We can wind up harming people we care about with words or deeds, people who have done no harm to us.

I begin telling him the truth and his face contorts. The glowing innocence is wiped away as his eyes flash first with fear, then anger. “No!,” he erupts. “There has to be a trial! If you kill an unarmed man, don’t you at least have a trial?”

My son is telling me now that the people in Ferguson should fight back. A minute ago, he was reminiscing about waving to Officer Friendly. Now he wants to riot.

I tell him that sometimes I have those feelings too. But now I feel something greater. I am proud of the thousands of people of all colors who have taken to the streets in nonviolent protest, raising their voices with boldness and courage, capturing the attention and the imagination of the world. They’re building a radical movement for justice, one that would make the freedom fighters who came before them sing from the heavens with joy.

I tell my son, as well as my daughters, as we sit around the dinner table, stories of young activists organizing in Ferguson, some of them not much older than they are. I tell them about the hip-hop artist Tef Poe, who traveled with Michael Brown’s parents to Geneva to testify before a United Nations subcommittee about police militarization and violence. I tell them about activists like Phillip B. Agnew, Tory Russell, Brittany Ferrell and Alexis Templeton, who marched in the streets and endured tear gas while waving signs bearing three words: “Black Lives Matter.”

I’ve met some of these activists, I say. They believe, like you do, that we should be able to live in a world where we trust the police and where all people and all children, no matter what their color or where they came from, are treated with dignity, care, compassion and concern. These courageous young people know the tools of war, violence and revenge will never build a nation of justice. They told me they’re willing to risk their lives, if necessary, so that kids like you can live in a better world.

My son is stirring his mashed potatoes around on his plate. He looks up and says, “Right now, I’m just thinking I don’t want anything like this ever to happen again.”

I’m tempted to tell him that it will happen; in fact, it already has. Several unarmed black men have been shot by the police since Aug. 9, when Michael Brown was killed. But I don’t say another word. It’s much easier telling the truth about race and justice in America to strangers than to my son, who will soon be forced to live it.

*Michelle Alexander is the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”

The manslaughter charge is one of the most serious in recent memory against a soldier or border policeman.

The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against a Border Police officer for manslaughter in the highly controversial and videotaped killing of a Palestinian minor in Beitunya in May.

The indictment revolved around the fatal shooting of Nadim Nuwara, 17, on Nakba Day, when Palestinians mourn the establishment of the State of Israel. Nuwara was killed when scores of Palestinians attacked soldiers with stones at a protest near the Ofer Prison, located between Ramallah and the Givat Ze’ev settlement.

The manslaughter charge is one of the most serious in recent memory against a soldier or border policeman for the killing of a Palestinian while acting in the line of duty, and could lead to serious jail time.

Typically, incidents of killing Palestinians end with no charge, justified by self-defense, or at most result in disciplinary actions for violating rules of engagement or a negligent homicide charge with little or no jail time.

In a Wednesday pretrial hearing, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court had already permitted publication of several key details of the investigation against the border policeman, though his name was still under gag order even after the filing of the indictment.

The indictment said that the policeman had received permission to fire rubber bullets to disperse confrontational crowds throwing rocks.

The policeman had two magazines, one with rubber bullets and one with live ammunition, the rubber bullet magazine being clearly demarcated by its red color, according to the indictment.

At some point during the altercation, the policeman switched some live bullets into his rubber bullet magazine to be able to fire live ammunition and to hide his violation of the rules of engagement from the other soldiers, the indictment alleged.

Some of the other details included that the blood of one Palestinian minor was found on a live-fire bullet retrieved from the deceased minor’s body and that expert reports have connected the bullet with the border policeman’s gun.

Other pieces of evidence appeared to include wiretapping of the policeman’s communications and some other persons involved in the incident.

Despite the evidence, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court expressed doubt about finding sufficient evidence for specific intent to kill and a murder charge, implying that a manslaughter charge would have a strong and much better chance of being accepted – a recommendation the state ultimately accepted.

The policeman was not indicted for the killing of a separate Palestinian that day.

The policeman had appeared in court on November 12, a day after he was arrested in connection to the killing of Nuwara. It had already been surmised that the charge would revolve around whether the officer used live ammunition and not rubber bullets in violation of the rules of engagement for using deadly force.

Palestinians and Israeli left-wing activists said that Nuwara and an additional teenager killed on that day, Muhammad Abu Daher, were shot with live ammunition, which soldiers are supposed to use only when their lives are in danger.

Palestinians said in June that an autopsy concluded that Nuwara had been killed by live fire. Palestinian, US and Danish pathologists were reportedly present at the autopsy in the Palestinian Institute of Forensic Medicine in the West Bank town of Abu Dis.

Video from security cameras on Palestinian properties close to the scene of the May protest showed the two teenagers falling to the ground in separate incidents.

At the time, right-wing activists claimed the scene was staged and deemed it “Pallywood.”

Palestinians have claimed that the footage proves that the teenagers were shot despite posing no immediate threat to Israeli forces.

The IDF denied the allegation and insisted that only rubber bullets were used. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had suggested the surveillance video might have been doctored, an allegation the human-rights groups that distributed the material have denied.

At the time, an IDF source said 150 Palestinians who had gathered to mark Nakba Day threw firebombs and rocks at soldiers and border policemen and rolled burning tires at them.

“The rioting was very serious,” an army source said after the incident. “This was a very aggressive attack on security personnel.

Video analysis pinpoints Israeli killer of Palestinian teen

A sophisticated and compelling analysis of video and other evidence has pinpointed the Israeli occupation soldier who shot and killed seventeen-year-old Nadim Siam Nuwara six months ago.

Meanwhile, an occupation soldier arrested in Nuwara’s killing is being treated as a hero by thousands of Israelis.

Nuwara was shot dead in cold blood by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia on 15 May during protests marking Nakba Day, the commemoration of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Another teen, Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, sixteen years old, was shot dead at almost the same spot, the same day, in the same manner.

The analysis, explained in the brief video above, was conducted by the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture at the request of Defence for Children International–Palestine (DCI-Palestine).

It combines analysis of security camera and CNN footage of the shooting, sound analysis and computer modeling as well as physical evidence and information from the pathology report on Nuwara.

“Using spatial and video analysis we have identified the border policeman that shot and killed the unarmed Nadim Nuwara,” said Eyal Weizman, principal investigator at Forensic Architecture, in a statement sent to The Electronic Intifada by DCI-Palestine.

“Using sound analysis we found that the border policeman fired live ammunition through a rubber bullet extension installed on his gun, perhaps in an attempt to hide his action,” Weizman added.

The analysis identifies one of the two soldiers visible in the CNN footage – whom Forensic Architecture labels “Soldier A” – as the shooter who killed Nuwara.

Forensic Architecture is funded by the European Research Council and housed at the Center for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. It consists of multidisciplinary practitioners – architects, artists and filmmakers – who undertake investigations that have provided evidence for international prosecution teams, political organizations, nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations.

Accused child-killer hailed as hero

Earlier this month, Israeli authorities arrested a member of the Israeli Border Police on suspicion of the murder of Nuwara. Israel also arrested a superior officer who allegedly knew about the shooting and concealed it.

Israeli authorities have not released the names of the suspects, but the accused shooter was remanded in custody until next Wednesday, when he could conceivably be released pending further inquiries.

Israeli media report that he is also a suspect in the killing of the second teen, Muhammad Abu al-Thahir.

Rather than view him as a bad apple giving their unit a bad name, many members of the Border Police have rallied to the accused killer’s defense. Many have posted messages on social media declaring, “We are all with the magavnik” – a term for a member of the Border Police, which is known in Hebrew by the acronym Magav.

A Facebook page set up to support the accused killer, also titled “We are all with themagavnik,” has garnered more than 25,000 “Likes” and, like other such pages, is filled with racist and violent incitement against Palestinians.

A number of people have posted images of children, some toddlers, holding signs expressing support for the man accused of murdering a Palestinian teen.

Michael Ben-Ari, the former Israeli lawmaker notorious for leading hate rallies against Africans and Palestinians, also posted a video appealing for money for the accused killer’s family.

Hate rally

During court proceedings, “friends of the accused officer gathered outside the court house, sang supportive songs and called out to him with declarations that he was a ‘hero,’” The Times of Israelreports.

In this video, originally posted in the Facebook group, Israelis can be seen listening to a speech in support of the “magavnik” and shouting sectarian and racist slogans including “medinat yehudim” – meaning a “state for the Jews only.”

The speaker asks that “all the Arabs of Israel die to atone for him [the magavnik].” Many in the crowd answer “Amen.”

The crowd then begins to chant “Kahane was right,” and sing “Kahane is still alive,” a reference to the late Meir Kahane, the founder of a banned extremist group that calls for the total expulsion of Palestinians and is considered a “terrorist” organization in several jurisdictions, including the United States.

The outpouring of support for the accused murderer recalls an episode earlier this year when another member of the occupation forces became an overnight hero for pointing a loaded gun at Palestinian youths.

Impunity

“While we welcome the arrest of an unnamed Israeli border policeman alleged to have fatally shot Nadim Nuwara, tragically this killing is not exceptional,” Brad Parker, international advocacy officer at DCI-Palestine, said in the statement.

“Past Israeli investigations into similar incidents consistently fail to be serious, impartial or result in indictments. In this case, though there is CCTV footage and news coverage of the shooting, systemic impunity is likely to be an obstacle to justice and accountability,” Parker added.

At a remand hearing in a Jerusalem court on Wednesday, Benny Katz, the suspect’s attorney, told reporters his client says he fired only rubber bullets during the protest and denies using live ammunition.

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Israel Police Officer Arrested in

Videotaped Killing of Palestinian Teen

Probe Trashes Rubber Bullet Claim in Nakba Day Clash

By Reuters

Israeli police have arrested a paramilitary border policeman over the fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank in May, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

Nadim Nuwara, 17, and Muhammad Abu Thahr, 16, were killed during a May 15 demonstration in which Palestinians hurled stones at Israeli forces. Video from security cameras suggested they were shot despite posing no immediate threat to the troops.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the policeman was arrested in connection with Nuwara’s death, but not Abu Thahr’s, because an autopsy was only carried out on Nuwara’s body.

All other details of the investigation were under a gag order, he said.

At a remand hearing in a Jerusalem court on Wednesday, Benny Katz, the suspect’s attorney, told reporters his client says he fired only rubber bullets during the protest and denies using live ammunition.

At the time, Palestinian medics said the boys were killed by live bullets. The Israeli military said its forces fired only rubber bullets that day and that border policemen, who are also armed with assault rifles and carry out security duties in the West Bank, were present at the scene as well.

Violence between Israelis and Palestinians has spiraled in the last few weeks, raising fears of a new uprising. Peace talks collapsed in April and Israeli forces and Palestinian militants fought a 50-day war in July and August.

In June, the Palestinian attorney-general said an autopsy, requested by Nuwara’s family, showed the youth was killed by live fire. U.S., Danish and Israeli pathologists were also present at the autopsy.

Footage from security cameras on Palestinian properties near the demonstration showed each of the youths, about an hour apart according to the time stamp, walking at some distance from the protest and then falling to the ground, apparently shot.

“Hopefully God willing there will be justice in the case of my son,” said Siam Nuwara, the boy’s father. “I believe there is law in Israel, but the question is whether they will apply it for a Palestinian the same way they would for an Israeli.”

The protest took place outside Israel’s Ofer Prison near the Palestinian town of Beitunia.

In an incident in Beitunia on Wednesday, Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded Ahmed Hassouneh, a 25-year-old Palestinian, during an arrest raid, medics said. Israeli authorities had no immediate comment.

A Palestinian protester carries a wounded comrade during clasheswith Israeli forces on May 15, 2014 (MaanImages)

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An Israeli border policeman has been arrested in connection with the fatal May 15 shootings of two Palestinian teenagers, an Israeli police spokesman told Ma’an Wednesday.

Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an via telephone that no other information was available regarding the arrest except that it was related to the Nakba day killings of 15-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Thahir and 17-year-old Nadim Nuwarah in Beituniya.

Additionally, the Israeli news site Ynet reported that an Israeli investigation had revealed that live fire was used while Israeli forces were dispersing the protests. Israeli forces had initially insisted that live fire was not used, but Palestinian medical sources told media at the time that the wounds that killed the two teens were from live bullets.

Israeli forces shot and killed the teens during a protest rally marking the 66th anniversary of the Nakba, and Palestinians across the occupied territories and elsewhere were also commemorating the “catastrophe,” when more than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number more than 5 million with their descendants — fled or were driven from their homes in 1948.

The killings were caught on camera, as CCTV footage showed that the two teens were not participating in clashes when they were shot dead, and posed no threat to Israeli forces.

Amnesty International condemned the killings, saying the Israeli army has “repeatedly resorted to extreme violence to respond to Palestinian protests against Israel’s occupation, discriminatory policies, confiscation of land, and construction of unlawful settlements.”

Rifat Kassis, executive director of Defense for Children International — Palestine, said at the time that “the images captured on video show unlawful killings where neither child presented a direct and immediate threat to life at the time of their shooting.”

“These acts by Israeli soldiers may amount to war crimes, and the Israeli authorities must conduct serious, impartial, and thorough investigations to hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes,” Kassis said.

The US State Department had also urged Israel to conduct a “prompt and transparent investigation.”

“It is clear from the video footage that the shooting of Hamdan was a murder, as Hamdan did not pose an immediate threat to the lives of the police officers when they shot him,” theAdalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said in a statement.

An image of Kheir Hamdan widely circulated on social media.

“Hamdan approached the officers’ van and banged on the windows with an object. The officers then opened the door of the van, got out and shot him from close range as he tried to run away from the scene, without giving any prior warning such as firing a shot into the air,” Adalah added.

“After the murder occurred, the police rushed to publish a false statement about the details of the incident, but later it became clear that cameras had documented the incident, showing that the police narrative was false and fabricated,” Adalah said.

Israeli police had previously told media that Hamdan was shot “when he tried to stab an officer during an attempt to arrest him for allegedly throwing a stun grenade in the town.”

“The officers’ actions clearly violate the open fire regulations of the police,” Adalah added. “The video also raises suspicion that the police shot Hamdan again after he was injured and had fallen to the ground.”

The group notes that “the police dragged Hamdan’s body in a humiliating manner while he was bleeding and threw him into the police van, as if they were carrying a meaningless object, instead of calling on rescue teams to save him.”

Adalah called for the officers involved in the shooting to be suspended immediately and for a criminal investigation to be opened under the supervision of Israel’s attorney general.

Adalah expressed pessimism that the existing system could result in accountability. “The experience of Arab citizens proves that the Israeli Police Investigation Unit (Mahash) will not seriously investigate an incident of an Arab citizen’s murder at the hands of the police, and will not take those responsible for the murder to trial,” attorney Hussein Abu Hussein said in the statement.

Result of incitement

Adalah noted that the shooting came after direct incitement to violence against Arab citizens of Israel by a senior minister:

Adalah sees a direct connection between the murder of Kheir Hamdan and the statements made earlier this week by Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich. The Minister stated that anyone who attacks Israeli Jewish citizens should be killed immediately. In any democratic society that respects the life of its citizens, any government minister that makes statements such as those by Yitzhak Aharonovich should be immediately dismissed.

Impunity

There are more than 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who unlike Palestinians living under Israeli siege and occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are supposedly afforded civil rights and protections.

However, Palestinian citizens of Israel live under dozens of laws and de facto practices that leave them at best with second-class citizenship.

The Israeli state recognized this in the Or Commission report produced after the October 2000 police killings of thirteen Palestinian citizens of Israel. But as Patrick O. Stricklandreported last month, Israeli police brutality against Palestinian citizens remains unchecked fourteen years after that massacre.

Kheir Hamdan’s killing is only the latest by Israeli forces to be caught on video. In May, CNN and security camera video showed the cold-blooded killings by Israeli snipers of two teens, Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia.

In December 2012, a camera caught the killing of seventeen-year-old Muhammad al-Salaymeh in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. In that case, as in the killing of Hamdan, the video directly contradicted Israeli claims that the youth posed an immediate threat to the person who shot him.

Protests and repression

This video shows hundreds of people marching in Hamdan’s funeral in Kufr Kana as many more line the streets:

On Saturday, thousands of people marched through the town in a protest:

As this video posted on Saturday shows, Israeli police stationed large numbers of forces at the entrances to Kufr Kana:

Strikes and protests against Hamdan’s killings have continued in Palestinian cities towns across the Galilee and the north of present-day Israel, including in Haifa, Umm al-Fahm, Sakhnin and Tamra.

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Thousands marched in Staten Island today. They were protesting police brutality and abuse. They were demanding justice for the victims of that abuse. Eric Garner was placed in an illegal choke hold by a NYPD office several weeks ago. His crime? Selling illegal cigarettes. Despite his protestations and his repeated plea of “I can’t breathe,” despite the fact that he was already subdued, despite the fact that he was surround by cops, the officer continued to choke Mr. Garner. The result? Eric Garner died on the sidewalk, a victim, like so many others, of out-of-control police brutality. These police crimes are then followed by a disturbing lack of transparency and a failure of the justice system to indict, try and convict. Victims are invariably people of color. The time has come for civilian control of the police forces and an end to the militarization of police departments around the country. The sight of tanks and long rifles being aimed at American citizens in American towns like Ferguson, Missouri by a police department in camouflage and armed with military weapons should frighten and anger everybody.

The thousands marching in Staten Island today were saying “Enough!” and demanding that democratic control of police become a reality.

Holocaust survivor arrested in Missouri protests

Hedy Epstein, also a fierce critic of Israel: This is how I’m entering my 10th decade of life!

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Hedy Epstein Photo: REUTERS

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New York- Hedy Epstein, 90, and eight others were arrested for “failing to disperse” during protests taking place in downtown St. Louis on Monday.They were arrested for “failure to disperse” when they marched on, and held a small rally in front of a building where the office of Gov. Jay Nixon and many of his staff are located.

The protesters had demanded to speak to the governor or his representative about the conflict in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, by a police officer, and the governor’s decision to call in the National Guard to deal with the subsequent protests and looting.

Police and security would not let them in the building. When the nine protesters refused to leave, they were arrested, taken to the police station, booked, and then released.

“We need to stand up today so that people won’t have to do this when they’re 90,” Epstein said when she was arrested.

She was ordered to appear in court on October 21, she told The Jerusalem Post.

The German-born Epstein is known for her fervent activism and speaking out about national and international events.

She lives in Missouri and in 2001 started the St. Louis chapter of Women in Black, an antiwar movement organization that was founded in Jerusalem in 1988, during the second intifada, but has spread to other countries and to causes other than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Epstein has been a vocal advocate for the Free Gaza Movement.

According to her website, she has participated in several demonstrations “in opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, the 25-foot-high cement wall, and the demolition of Palestinian homes and olive orchards.” Epstein joined the failed Gaza Freedom March in 2010, trying to take a bus from Cairo to the Gaza Strip.

Epstein has won various accolades for her activism over the past decade, notably the 2005 Imagine Life Education through Media Award and the 2008 American Friends Service Committee’s Inspiration for Hope Award.

Born in born in Freiburg, in southwestern Germany, and raised in nearby Kippenheim, Epstein was eight years old when Adolf Hitler was sworn in as chancellor. In 1939, she was sent to England as part of the Kindertransport, which eventually moved 10,000 mostly Jewish children to safety. Her parents both died in concentration camps. After the war, she went back to Germany to work for the American government, including for the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, and finally immigrated to America in 1948.

Epstein told the Post that her parents were anti-Zionists, although she never had a chance to ask why they did not support a Jewish state.

“As young child, I didn’t really understand what that [anti-Zionism] is, and my parents were looking to go anywhere they could, but weren’t willing to go to Palestine,” Epstein said. “They did not wish to live in a country that was run by Jews and for Jews only.”

After arriving in the US in May 1948, the same month Israel was founded, she noted, Epstein said she remained fairly insulated from Israeli issues until 1982, when she heard about the massacres in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut. She went to the West Bank for the first time in 2003, for several months, and said that she was stopped at Ben-Gurion Airport in January 2004 when she was trying to leave the country.

“I was accused of being a security threat and a terrorist,” Epstein recounted. “And I was stripped searched and internally searched.”